Barely two minutes into 13,<\/i> I was struck with the notion that what I was listening to might just be one of the best, if not the best \u201creunion\u201d album of all time. When thinking of examples of similar records to 13, <\/i>albums like Endless Wire, Hell Freezes Over\/Long Road To Eden, That\u2019s Why God Made The Radio, Two Against Nature, Move Like This, <\/i>and American Dream<\/i> came to mind. One realizes that, for the most part, those albums fail to do one of two things: firstly, justify their existence (this also can function as the \u201cWas it good?\u201d question), and secondly, remind people why they were fans in the first place.<\/p>\n
Take Endless Wire<\/i>, <\/i>for instance: a solid record that earned itself a B from this reviewer. If you were to apply my reunion album criteria, it would earn a yes on both accounts. However, when I do the same with The Eagles\u2019 take on the comeback, A Long Road To Eden<\/i>, it\u2019s 50\/50. It decidedly answers the second question, but had it never been released, would we have missed out? That\u2019s not to detract from it\u2019 quality \u2013 I gave that album a B as well \u2013 but The Eagles could have left things along with The Long Run<\/i>.<\/p>\n
The original lineup of Black Sabbath sputtered out in the late \u201870s, finishing their run with the whimper of a record that was Never Say Die. <\/i>And while I would not put too fine a point on it, at that time did anyone honestly expect that Ozzy Ozbourne would still be around in 1983, let alone 2013? Yet even with a decidedly weak ending, the legacy of the original lineup of Black Sabbath lived on with the advent of heavy metal. Their run of albums from 1970-1976 is one of the foundational elements of the metal genre. Why bother trying to bring it all back, essentially thirtyish years later?<\/p>\n
The answer as it turns out, is because they could. Sabbath was never a particularly complex group; it was the sound<\/i> that made them famous, with those tuned down guitars and slow, sludgy take on blues\/rock. Couple that with lyrical aspect that earned them the \u201cBlack\u201d half of their name, and there you had Black Sabbath. 13<\/i> completely recaptures those elements of the band in shockingly accurate fashion. <\/p>\n
Iommi, Ozzy, and Butler do not play it safe either: this was a full on plunge back into the metal world, not merely a dipping of the toes. Leading off 13<\/i> with back-to-back eight minute tracks (\u201cEnd Of The Beginning,\u201d and \u201cGod Is Dead?\u201d) that actively seek to recreate the feel and scope of classics like \u201cWar Pigs\u201d <\/i>was a risky choice, but it completely pays off. The choice to release \u201cGod Is Dead\u201d as the lead single was an excellent one; by the time Ozzy reaches a full on wail and asks to \u201cgive me the wine, you keep the bread\u201d Sabbath had me, hook, line, and sinker. <\/p>\n
Special attention must be given to Mr. Osbourne: his performance on 13<\/i> makes one wonder just how much he played up the more…dullard parts of his personality the past decade and a half. There are many who only know Ozzy from reality television or his wife and not for helping to found heavy metal. When I first heard that Sabbath had reunited and was planning on releasing a record, my only question was, \u201cIs Ozzy up to it?\u201d Not only does Ozzy sound very similar to the vocals of his heyday, but he puts on a very Ozzy performance<\/i>. It\u2019s not difficult to hear the passion he has, and when he screams at the listener \u201cCome on now!\u201d you are listening to a man who has been doing this for a very long time and knows just how to reach you.<\/p>\n
The group also touches on aspects of their career that some may have forgotten about. For example, \u201cZeitgeist\u201d attempts a very similar style to that of the psychedelic \u201cPlanet Caravan\u201d from Paranoid, <\/i>while \u201c<\/i>Damaged Soul\u201d functions as a Zeppelin-esque blues jam, which as mentioned previously is where Sabbath originated from. The former works much better than the latter; \u201cDamaged Soul\u201d could have been trimmed in half and would have accomplished just as much.<\/p>\n
13<\/i> is amazing in that when you ask our questions, the answers are both superlative yes\u2019s. In fact, were one to take 13<\/i> and place it back in the \u201970s somewhere between Master Of Reality <\/i>and Sabotage<\/i>, it would be remembered as one of the great Sabbath albums. There is no trace of ego, no poorly handled attempt to make sure that every band member gets to throw an outtake from his solo career onto the record. It\u2019s a Sabbath record in every sense of the word. That is high praise indeed.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":44,"featured_media":31492,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"artist":[5638],"rating":[5617],"class_list":["post-43193","review","type-review","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","artist-black-sabbath","rating-rating-b-plus"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review\/43193","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/review"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/44"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=43193"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review\/43193\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/31492"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=43193"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"artist","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/artist?post=43193"},{"taxonomy":"rating","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/rating?post=43193"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}